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Wadi Bel Gadir Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone, Cyrene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Donald White
Donald White*
Affiliation:
University Museum University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

Systematic excavation in the grounds of Cyrene's extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone has taken place on a syncopated annual basis since 1969 (non-seasons in '70, '72, and '75), and while this activity has not been conducted under the auspices of the Society for Libyan Studies, the original idea to clear the site owes much of its inspiration to the encouragement of Richard Goodchild, who had generously agreed to share in its responsibility before his death in 1968 brought about the postponement of its pilot season scheduled for later in that same year. Moreover, the University Museum Expedition was fortunate to obtain a research grant from the Society in 1976 for one of its staff. For these reasons I am happy to contribute the following what otherwise might appear exogenous remarks.

While the site athwart the south slope of Wadi Bel Gadir (pl. 1, fig. 1) appears to have been scarcely noticed by the early travelers, R. Norton (1910–11) followed by E. Ghislanzoni (1915) are known to have retrieved a number of sculptures and terracottas from its soil. In fact, some of the more burdensome of the marbles first discovered and then abandoned by the former were subsequently recovered by the latter, only to turn up in the same locus more than half a century later, re-buried in shallow fill containing broken wine (?) bottles and spent cartridges. Some time between 1915 and 1929 the Italian authorities were motivated to lay railway track along the wadi drain and to carry out an extensive clearance of the sanctuary's lower two terraces, leaving a gaping hole in its NW corner still visible today. Nothing is known of what prompted this considerable effort, which was never published, but already by the time of Anti's article the area is referred to as a Demeter sanctuary mainly on the basis of random discoveries of fragmentary inscriptions eventually published by Oliverio. By 1969 the site exhibited only the bare outlines of its main wall features and betrayed few outward signs of previous digging.

Type
Research Article
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 9 , 1978 , pp. 31 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1978

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References

Notes

1. Preliminary reports as follows: Libya Antique VIII (1971) 85–104Google Scholar. Ibid. IX–X (1972–1973) 171–195; 197–219. AJA 79 (1975) 33–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Ibid. 80 (1976) 165–181. Goodchild, R., Kyrene und Apollonia (Zürich 1971) 156–164Google Scholar. “Cyrenaica 1962–1972,” Archaeological Reports for 1971–72 (London 1972) 35–36Google Scholar. For sculpture and other related matters see Opuscula Romana IX: 24 (1973) 207–215Google Scholar. Expedition 17 (1975) No. 4, 2–15Google Scholar. Ibid. 18 (1976) No. 2, 14–32. The project has been supported by the University of Michigan, the University Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Libyan Department of Antiquities, and through the generosity of various private individuals including Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Colburn, Mrs. Edward Lower, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Smith and Mrs. Elizabeth Whitehead.

2. Avard made to Dr. Susan Kane for study of a group of votive and portrait sculptures from the Wadi Bel Gadir sanctuary as well as comparative materials in the departmental collections at Ptolemais, Benghazi, and Tripoli.

3. Anti, C., “Sulle orme di Callimacho a Cirene,” Africa Italiana II (1929) 227–230Google Scholar.

4. Goodchild, R., Pedley, J. and White, D., “Apollonia, the Port of Cyrene, Excavations by the University of Michigan 1965–1967,” Supplements to Libya Antiqua IV (1977) 92, 140, 141, pl. X dGoogle Scholar.

5. Stucchi, S., “L'agora di Cirene,” Monografie di archeologia libica VII (Rome 1965) 176–177Google Scholar.

6. According to Joyce Reynolds the letter style of its attached inscribed base belongs from the middle to the second half of the second century A.D., while Susan Kane's preliminary reaction to its sculptural style was that it is probably Severan.

7. The series of island gems thus far excavated currently numbers seven.

8. The convention established for designating any given grid square is to refer to its upper left-hand coordinates.

9. Eighth Annual Report 1976–77, pp. 17–18.